Come join me on a travel memory to Kalymnos, a Greek island I explored last month. Lying like a scraggly lion in the southeastern Aegean, Kalymnos is a rugged place where mountains rise out of that royal turquoise sea and seem to loom forebodingly, especially to a flatlander like me.
Yet once we traveled up and among them, I saw they weren’t as barren as they appear from below. Wildflowers pop up alongside caper bushes and drought resistant herbs like oregano and sage thrive. Bees feed on the nectar of wild thyme, and scattered hives collect Kalymnian honey, an island specialty.
Sheer cliffs attract rock climbers from around the globe, and from the narrow, winding roads they appear as tiny specks clinging to the limestone ledges as they traverse upwards.
But the history of Kalymnos is on the opposite end of that vertical line. It was sponge diving that put it on the map. Long before the introduction of scuba gear Kalymnian men dove off their small caiques - weighted by stones, they descended hundreds of feet to the sea floor to gather the sponges.
Tales of sea sponges go back as far as Homer’s works, and Kalymnian timber was used to build boats for the Trojan War. Ancient history and the world of gods and goddesses feel very close on Kalymnos.
I’m Paula Garrett and that’s at least part one of my summer travel perspective.
